the Schedule - Overruled

The Schedule said I had to do three hours on the mountain bike on Saturday. My Daughter said I had to take her to the Lough Shore. My Daughter won.

I loaded her and her brother into the bike trailer, Granda borrowed my marin, and we took the scenic route down along the river, through the castle gardens and down to the shore; ate ice cream, watched the pirate ship race, saw a demonstration rescue by Lough Neagh Rescue and lay in the sunshine.

I couldn't help but notice a girl in the crowd with her arm in a sling and a plaster cast all the way up to her shoulder looking awkward holding a wee baby. That wrist surgery's never far from my mind these days.

Martin does a lot of his training with weights on his ankles. Personally I don't see the logic in this, because the weight's balanced - so when you have to pull one weight up, the other's pushing down, cancelling out the effort. Pulling a five year old and a three year old behind you in a trailer, on the other hand, now that's a definite training enhancement.

The problem is that my straight line cycling fitness isn't my biggest worry. I really need to improve my off-road skill, so tomorrow I'm heading down to the Mournes for an overnighter, taking my new £10 Lidl lightweight tent, sleeping in my as-yet-not-used Scottish Silkworm sleeping bag liner, and cooking on... I'm not sure which of my too-many stoves I'll take.

I wonder where my compass is.

First Gear

So what do we need to take? and how do we carry it?
At this stage we don't need to work out everything, but if we have a fair idea now we'll know what we've got and what we need to buy.

bikes.
We both have marin hardtails, though mine's a Northside Trail (less than £500) and Martin's is a Rocky Ridge (more than £1200) Both should be capable of doing the journey, but his is more capable than mine. I wonder should I get something new in next year's cycle to work scheme.
I suppose we'll have to take a couple of spare tubes and a pump between us too.

clothes.
No need to take the whole wardrobe. We both came up with similar ideas: lycra shorts (mine came from Lidl) with combats over the top, a cycle jersey, a windproof and a waterproof. My montane featherlight smock is definitely going.
Will we smell after five days? Undoubtedly.
It looks as if there will be some serious carrying done, especially on the first day, so I'll be taking proper walking shoes as well as my cycling ones.

sleeping.
sleeping bag - I've got a couple of old synthetic bags that'll do the job, I've always wanted a silk sleeping bag liner, so this is a good opportunity.
bed - no problem here, I'll nick one of the wains' Wee Airics

shelter.
I lifted our 3-man dome tent last night. It's only 3kg, but I set it down straight away. it's much too heavy; we'll have to bivouac.
Alpkit's hunka is about £30. I wonder if I could get away with just a bivvy bag and a silk liner in July in England?
I've a tarp and a few wee ponchos. I'll have to try them both to see which is best.

cooking.
I think it's fair to say the Kelly Kettle can't come. Pity.
My sister got me a great book, Moveable Feasts, for Christmas. It's got all the technical stuff about how your body processes carbohydrates, proteins and fats, it's got advice on kit for carrying and cooking food, and it's got piles of recipes.
What's really good is that the authors are normal people. They aren't trying to tell us how to dig snow holes in the jungles of Borneo using nothing more than a toothpick and a lock of hair, but neither do they try to persuade us to spend £300 on a new sort of lightweight folding spoon. It's all sensible advice that I might actually use.

Needless to say I'll be devouring (see what I did there?) this book over the next few days, but in the meantime I'm thinking the trangia's too big, my eurohike solo saucepans are too wee, but my coleman outlander is the perfect stove for the job. (I might take my homemade 7-up can stove and some meths just so I can say I've used it)